Best Time to Visit Kakamega

January and February: the sweet spot

These are the two driest months, and they're your best bet. Days are warm but not heavy, and mornings start cool at around 15°C. February is a touch warmer and still gets decent sun, about five hours a day.

For Kakamega Forest, this is the time to go. The trails are drier underfoot, so the walk to Isiukhu Falls and the early-morning birding in the Buyangu area are far more pleasant. Look for the great blue turaco and, if you're lucky, red-tailed monkeys. Showers still come on about nine days a month, so you won't escape rain entirely. They tend to be short, though.

December is a good runner-up. It's drier than the months after October, with about 85 mm of rain, but it's also when Kenyans travel home for the holidays. Book forest lodges and banda huts (simple cottages) early if you're going then.

March to May: the long rains

March is a bridge month. Rain jumps to 137 mm on 15 days, and it's a fair choice if you can handle some wet. By April the rain is near-daily, with 275 mm. May is the wettest month at 282 mm, just ahead of April.

On the ground, that means muddy forest paths, cloud-heavy skies and slow, sticky travel on dirt roads. You'll want proper boots for the forest. The upside is that it's the quietest time, and the forest is at its greenest. Lodges are rarely full.

June to November: wet but workable

Don't write off the rest of the year. June and July are cooler, with highs around 24°C, and it's grey more often than stormy. August is the second-wettest stretch, at 222 mm, and September is nearly the same. October and November are rated Poor, with only about three hours of sun a day.

This is a good window if you're after frogs, butterflies and fewer people. Rain often arrives in the afternoon, so aim for forest walks in the morning. If you're after photos of the forest canopy, the clear mornings are your best chance.

Kakamega isn't a big festival town, so there's no single event to plan around. Most visitors come for the forest, and school holidays in April, August and December bring the only real bumps in local travel.